Sunday, May 31, 2015

Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 95%Numbers at a glance: Billfish 89%, Other 43%

BILLFISH: A superb week in Cabo with superb catches throughout the week. The good old days are back! Striped marlin were thick and a few sailfish and blue marlin were in the mix too. The Papazyam family from Los Angeles had one of the best catches of the week when they released six striped marlin in one day aboard 28 ft. Adriana at the 11.50 spot, which has been holding impressive numbers of marlin for the past two weeks. This same day May 24th Valerie released five marlin for another family from Los Angeles – these fish weighed from 100 to 150 lbs. and were all caught on live bait, also at the 11.50 spot. On May 26th, Flora T did very well to release six marlin for Robert & Trevor Patel from Atlanta. A really outstanding day was had by C Rod for Robert & Debbie Adams and friends; they released four striped marlin, a 180 lb. thresher shark, 120 lb. pilot shark both released and a 20 lb. dorado for the table. Ruthless released five marlin for John & Katie Staples and we had many catches like this as the week went on. Anglers regularly caught and released between one and five marlin, as well as many sharks. Attitude Adjustment was our only boat to catch a blue marlin, just under 200 lbs., and this one was caught five miles outside the 11.50. Pisces Sportfishing anglers caught a total of 154 striped marlin, 1 blue marlin and 2 sailfish; all but two fish were released.

OTHER SPECIES: A lot of sharks were caught this week and many of a good size in the 80 to 180 lb. class. The most abundant was the pilot shark, which we believe is a silky shark – we had twenty two of these this week, as well as three thresher sharks, one bull shark and one mako shark. Some boats caught as many as three sharks in a day. It should be noted that all sharks are being released at this time as there is a ban on taking these until July 31st. Just a smattering of dorado were caught. Inshore fishing had some slow days, where pangas got skunked but on other days they did well on jack crevalle, grouper and triggerfish. Roosterfish, wahoo, group and skipjacks were caught in lesser amounts.

BILLFISH: This week produced
great catches that remained consistent throughout the week and some red
hot fishing that we haven’t seen in months. The striped marlin bite was
great at the 11.50 spot as far as Punta Gorda & multiple marlin
catches per boat occurred on several days. One of the best days was May
21st, when 28 ft Adriana caught six striped marlin up to 150 lbs for Alex, Brenda, Jeff & Joe from Kalispell, Missouri. Listo
the 35 ft Cabo, also had six marlin all on live caballito for a group
from Colorado. Joseph Capezio from & friends from California had an
amazing time aboard Tracy Ann
as they released four striped marlin & five pilot sharks. Calvin
Baker from North Carolina also figured in our top anglers for releasing
five marlin up to 120 lbs on the La Brisa
with Captain Rey Winkler. The Valerie had a quadruple marlin day for
the Bateman’s from Texas on May 20th. Striped marlin were not the only
catch this week we also had a couple of sailfish both aboard Rebecca
– the first catch was for the Rasmussen family from New Mexico – they
had a busy day, releasing the sailfish, plus three striped marlin &
two pilot sharks – what a day! The next sailfish was caught by Jake
Steinsberg who also released three striped marlin at the 95 spot.
Catches for other boats were of one or two fish. We also heard of a
700 lbs blue marlin caught out of San Jose, however, the disturbing part
is that we were told it was never weighed but was sold on the black
market – remember marlin is a species reserved for sportfishing &
cannot be sold commercially. Pisces anglers caught a total of 96
striped marlin this week & two sailfish, all released except one.

This unusual catch of a sheep’s head was on the panga Salsa

OTHER SPECIES: A lot of sharks
were caught this week mostly pilot sharks (presumed to be silky sharks)
with as many as five caught on a single boat. A couple of thresher
sharks were fought, one aboard Listoestimated at 160 lbs by Russell Daniel, who also released three striped marlin at the 11.50 spot. The other was caught aboard Shambala&
was around 120 lbs. We saw a slight increase on dorado this week with a
half dozen caught up to 30 lbs. Wahoo catches also picked up with a
nice 50 lb’er aboard Bill Collector at Destiladeras. Knot Workin did
not catch as big a wahoo but did catch eight up to 35 lbs off of Cabeza
de Ballena for Richard Campbell & friends. Smaller game accounted
for forty two percent of the catches this week. Skipjacks, grouper,
bonita, triggerfish, mojarras, roosterfish, snapper & sierra were
all caught. One of the more unusual catches was a “vieja” or sheep’s
head aboard the panga Salsa.

BILLFISH: Once again we had an
up and down week with unusually cooler and windy weather as well as
unseasonal rain on Thursday. After a flurry of good catches the fishing
again started out on the inconsistent side, with choppy seas and crews
often spotting numbers of marlin in the Punta Gorda area who were
reluctant to take the bait offered by some boats, but others fishing the
same area the same day did manage to hook up a few. As the week
progressed the catches began to improve with Rebecca
leading the way on May 10th with two striped marlin and a mako shark
released off of Palmilla for Darryl & Jill Yarbrough. The next day
out Neil Darling & Wade Ryan from Canada, did really well to release
four striped marlin up to 120 lbs. at the 11.50 spot aboard C Rod. Fishing alongside them was Cabolero
with three marlin released for Kevin & Holly Corlton. By May 12th
nearly every boat from Pisces had one to three marlin, with Tracy Ann & Valerie topping the report this day and the majority of catches at the 11.50 spot. The day before this we had a first on the Valerie
with angler Vincent Biesiot from North Dakota; he released a 130 lb.
striped marlin, not unusual, but then the crew spotted a whale shark
behind the boat and gave Vincent and his buddy the opportunity of a
lifetime to jump in and swim with the gentle giant – rare to do on a
fishing trip. At the close of the report C Rod
excelled with five striped marlin released on May 15th for Casey
Stencil and friends again at the 11.50 spot. Striped marlin where the
top catch in Cabo this week with sixty five percent of our boats
catching a total of 78 fish; all but one released.

Once in a lifetime chance, Vincent Biesiot & buddy swim with a whale shark during their trip aboard Valerie

OTHER SPECIES: We have a lot of
sharks in the area right now and after marlin they were the most caught
fish. We had mako´s, blues and pilot sharks – a local name given that
is hard to identify; hopefully we will have a picture of one soon to be
able to do some sleuthing. Rebecca released a 70 lb. mako off of Palmilla on May 10th. Bill Collector released four pilot sharks up to 150 lbs., plus a striped marlin for Brian Cooper from Phoenix on May 12th. Whilst La Brisa
released three pilot sharks between 80 and 100 lbs. for Gary, Mike
& Linda Wagner at the 11.50 spot on May 15th. It should be
mentioned that there is as “veda” in place for sharks put in place by
the Mexican fisheries department, this means that no sharks can be
killed, though they can be caught and released. The period of
abstention from killing sharks is from May 1st to July 31st. They make
beautiful mounts so replicas are recommended for this species. Very few
dorado were caught this week, the only exception was Tracy Ann
with four caught at Los Arcos on the small side at around 12 lbs., they
also managed to release two large striped marlin, estimated at 160
& 180 lbs. at the 95 spot for the Eppes family from Fairfield,
Texas. There were no real numbers on other small game fish but a few
sierra, grouper, skipjacks, jack crevalle, triggerfish and snappers were
caught.

Monday, May 11, 2015

BILLFISH: After
a great couple of weeks of increasing catches and improvement in
billfish rates, this last week was a bit disappointing, as we were
slammed with huge ground swells causing the port to be closed to small
vessels on a couple of days. Added to this were some strong winds and
full moon; a recipe for tough fishing. This was frustrating for crews
and anglers alike, but that said we still had marlin catches throughout
the week with some days better than others. We also heard of an eleven
foot sailfish being caught and a small black marlin. When fish were
caught the most likely encounter was with striped marlin. Catches
started out at the 95 spot and 11.50 spot then gradually moved up the
Sea of Cortez to Punta Gorda and Destiladeras. The most any boat got
was two marlin in a day, usually on live caballito, though there were
some lure fish too. The size on the stripers has increased slightly at
120 to 160 lbs. Tracy Ann and La Brisa
were two of the better boats this week with five marlin each. Even
though this report is a bit glum, we are not discouraged as the wind has
died as we write this, the sun has come out and the moon is getting
smaller. The last day of this report nearly every boat had at least one
marlin released. Pisces anglers released 27 striped marlin this week.

OTHER SPECIES: Most boats concentrated on marlin as that was the best odds of a catch this week, we did however get a couple of dorado. La Brisa
released a 45 lb. mako shark for Lovene Helt & Michael DeMeo from
California. This boat was also the only one to catch a wahoo this week,
of average size at 35 lbs. The port was closed a couple of days for
pangas, which fish, so less smaller game was caught. There were a
couple of grouper, bonita, jack crevalle, needlefish, skipjack,
triggerfish and sierra caught.

BILLFISH:
We had a fabulous week for striped marlin, the best so far this year.
The fish started to appear at the 11.50 spot on the Cortez side and
were stacked up for several consecutive days. Not every boat caught
marlin, but even then; they at least spotted them and threw bait but
were simply unlucky. On April 25th Karl & Shari Krueger from Meza,
Arizona did exceptionally well when they released six striped marlin
from 90 to 140 lbs aboard Ruthless. A couple of days later Rebecca
equaled this with six marlin of their own for anglers Lucas & John
Goudreault from Derry, New Hampshire, who’s’ fish were a little bigger
at 100 to 150 lbs. …they did well to muscle in around 750 lbs. of
marlin, which were all released. Darry & Laura Wodecki from York,
South Carolina also managed to release six marlin at the same location,
the 11.50 spot, on April 29th aboard the 35 ft. Cabo Listo. Closing out the week with a high catch was Flora T II
with five marlin released by Todd Mikles and friends from Los Angeles.
Other boats caught between one and four marlin each, giving us a total
of 100 fish caught of which all but one was released.

OTHER SPECIES: Seeing as the marlin bite was so
good nobody was really concentrating on anything else. The pangas we
sent out caught a few bonitas, skipjacks, jack crevalle and roosterfish.
Dorado fishing was slow with just a couple caught and no tuna this
week.WEATHER CONDTIONS: Sunny but fairly wind all week, blowing hard on the Pacific. Seas moderate.AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 73 FBEST LURES: Live caballito.
Based on the catches of Pisces Sportfishing by Tracy Ehrenberg.

About Pisces

www.piscessportfishing.com
We started off as a family owned and operated business out of the City of La Paz, Baja, Mexico in 1978 with one 28 ft boat. A couple of years later we moved to Cabo and since then we have grown to be the largest and most respected charter fleet in Mexico.
To keep pace with the growth of a more sophisticated market we gradually added more vessels and can now offer everything from the basic Baja Panga to mega yachts. Still, the favorite of most Cabo visitors(28-31ft) standard cruisers, seaworthy, clean boat, with very experienced crews which are great value for money. Slightly larger(32-48 ft), newer model, vessels with more comfort like salons and air-conditioning. Over 50 ft Sportfishers usually being new high tech vessels with great speed and more range. Last but not least, the Luxury Yachts, most being multi-purpose - fishing, cruising, snorkeling, diving -ideal for those want to be pampered with the very best.
What sets us apart are the relationships we form with our clients, long-term; our focus is service, value for money and experienced crews. We have a proven track record that keeps our guests returning year after year.